How Amelie met Myrnin… I understand that there is some sort of Myrnin's life story on Rachel Caine's website, but I haven't read it – this is my approximation!

This story fits in with 'Never Truly Relinquishing Her Hold' but can also be read without it!

I own nothing

Amelie's POV:

One day, I was in the back streets of London, when I heard a noise that alarmed me. It was a child, crying. More than that, it was a young child crying – a child that couldn't have been more than three years old.

Now, normally I didn't particularly get involved with humans issues. After all, I had enough of my own. Not just to do with my familial problems, but surviving in Medieval England as a vampire was enough of struggle. No, I didn't have the time to get involved! But this time, I found myself drawn to the child – a young boy, crying for his mother who never came.

With my intrigue served, I headed towards the small building where this child sat. My ebony cloak trailed along the floor and I had the hood up, as to protect myself from the rays of the sun. No matter that I was in the narrow streets in the back of London… sunlight still fiercely attacked a one hundred and fourteen year old vampire violently, procuring horrific reactions.

I found the location of the child, in a building that was beginning to collapse. From the outside, I could smell strange mixtures of chemicals… strange, because I had never smelt many of them then. In fact, looking back, I only began to recognise them many years after I met the quaint child crying in the laboratory.

The building reminded me of the building described in the poem, The Laboratory, by Robert Browning. There was dust everywhere, with bottles of disturbing looking liquids stacked perilously around the room, and I immediately felt dirty just by walking in the laboratory.

Yet in the centre of the room, I found the reason why I entered the home of another without permission; a small boy, curled up on the stone flagged floor, crying. His chocolate coloured hair was in soft curls, giving him an almost angelic appearance (if his hair colour was similar to mine) and were all dishevelled because of his snivelling.

"Excuse me, but are you alright?" I asked, not entirely sure about how to ask him this. After all, I never really had the experiences speaking with small boys, and never particularly had the inclination to.

The boy looked up at me in shock and confusion before shrinking away in fear. In hindsight, I realise that I should have removed the cloak before I began to speak to him. After all, how often did a small child – three, four years of age? – see a woman wearing a black cloak?

I shed the cloak and let the thick material spread over the floor, brushing against the boys spindly legs. He appeared to be particularly undernourished, with his face being too pointed and harshly angled… it wasn't natural for him to be so slender.

"Are you quite well?" I repeated and he nodded, still looking down at his knees. "Here, have this," I said, motioning to the cloak. I could see that he was shaking slightly from the noticeable chill to humans in the room where we sat.

"T-Thank you," he murmured, almost unintelligibly. I handed it to him with both hands, smiling as he took it from me and attempted to wrap it around his shoulders. He struggled, so I removed it gently from his hands before carefully wrapping it around them for him. I tucked it into his underarms and smiled as he appeared to already be warming up – if there was one use I had, to improve a child's life a little, I had completed it then.

"What is your name, child?" I asked quietly, sliding around on the floor to become more comfortable. I arranged my skirts around me in a heap, making sure that they remained as flat as possible so that they would not be creased. I extended my hearing out, to listen for other humans on the premises or nearby, so that I could rush and hide if necessary.

"M-Myrnin, miss," he said with a tone of regret – I did not understand why. Such an unusual name was a blessing – the name showed his entire uniqueness… he could be a great person, something which I knew then that he would become. Something which he did become!

"That is a very pretty name, Myrnin," I said, watching as his expression (which still faced his knees) changed to a slight grimace as I called him 'pretty' – something which I later recognised to be vanity… when would a boy wish to be deemed pretty? "Do you realise that it is common courtesy to look at the person that you are talking to, Myrnin?" I asked him, smiling slightly as I invoked a manner that he evidently had not been taught. Palpably, he had not had much human interaction and must have cried for his mother continually.

"Sorry, miss," he said and looked up. I smiled ever more so as his expression turned from slightly mutinous, to complete awe at my appearance. He didn't seem to be able to take in my angelic face, my grey eyes, and my long blonde hair that was long and loose about my shoulders that very day. "You're very pretty, miss," he complimented me and I laughed very lightly.

"Myrnin, why are you in such a dangerous place?" I asked him softly; keen to find out why the tear patterns were still prominent on his face.

"This is my home, miss," he said with a small shrug of his shoulders. "My Mother, she sold me to some scientist last year, so that he would feed me and teach me how to be a scientist. But I don't like it here, not really. I'm all alone and I want to learn to be a scientist, but he never really seems to be here," he continued and I felt a pang of pain for him in my heart. I knew then that, although I couldn't take him home with me, I would do everything I could to make sure that Myrnin would be safe and well in his home.

"What is your master's name, Myrnin?" I enquired him softly, my eyes raking around the room as to look for something that could identify the master.

"Mr Fenwick, miss," he replied with an undertone of fear in his voice. This alerted me to the fact that he was scared of his master – he probably beat him. I looked at his skin and realised that I could see faded scars and bruises on his body.

Yet what could I do? I couldn't take him with me, what with my being of a vampire, but I couldn't leave him there, to fend for himself.

So I decided to wait. I decided to wait for his master to return, so that I could compel him to treat the boy with the respect he deserved. After all, he was only a baby; in a sense… the conditions he was in were appalling.

"Myrnin, when your master returns, I am going to do something that will make him be nicer to you," I said very quietly, trying to make sure that he would understand that whatever he saw me do, he could NOT tell anyone else.

"What will you do?" he asked, his lip quivering softly as children of his age often do.

"I will look at him and instruct him of what he is to do," I uttered quietly, keeping as close to the truth as possible but as far away as so that he didn't realise what I was. So many people then were religious and believed in mythical creatures, meaning that I had to continually be on my guard for those coming after me. "Do you understand that you cannot tell anyone about this, however, and that this MUST keep between us?" I confirmed and he nodded, his eyes lighting up at the fact that he will be better treat from now on.

"Why are you doing this?" he asked me, confused. I shook my head in confusion – that is one question that I never would have expected to be asked by someone so young. It seemed so… mature. It seemed as if he knew exactly what was going on and that he wanted to know everything in the situation. "Are you some sort of angel?" he continued before I could answer. That one made me smile… if only he knew I was as far from an angel as anyone could possibly be; vampires are deemed Devil's minions and thus the complete opposite of an angel.

"No, I am not an angel… I am as far from that as possible," I said with a wry smile, grimness setting in as I realised, again, that I never would get to be united with God. "I am doing this because you do not deserve to live in such misery… children are supposed to grow up with happiness and laughter. My… my own daughter had that, and I wish that I could spread that to each and every child in the world that isn't as fortunate," I continued, a tear escaping down my eye as I remembered the child I loved so much… the child which will return soon.

"Are you a vampire?" Myrnin asks and I look at him in alarm. How on earth did he comprehend that in approximately five seconds? How on earth did a three year old find the identity as to what I am, when men and women that I have lived amongst for many a year have not managed to do this.

"How… what makes you say that?" I asked, changing the question partially through it. After all, I could find out why he thought I was that before dissuading him… I could always have compelled him to forget.

"You said that you were the opposite of an angel, and my mum always said that that was a vampire," he said simply, smiling with pride. I presumed that he was the type of child that always enjoyed proving himself right and, I had to admit, that he did have that. "I think that it's pretty cool… I'd want to be a vampire, if they exist. I mean I could live forever and learn loads of interesting science and everything! I mean, I don't want to be one now because I don't want to be frozen at six years old, but maybe in a few years. Maybe you could come back?" he suggested, but I was too caught up in the age he had. He was older than I thought he was – double the age I presumed he had. The malnourishment must have stunted his growth and the lack of human contact must have rendered him much more sensitive than he should be.

But his ideas about vampires – they were so grand! He made them appear to simply be these eternally living creatures that could simply learn if they wanted to; he didn't seem to acknowledge the more menacing and disturbing side of being a soulless creature of the devil.

"We shall see," I managed to proclaim after a long pause, during which I opened my mouth to speak, just to close it again. I didn't deny the existence of vampires, nor the fact that I was one, but he didn't pick up on that. Instead, he stood up in alarm, shedding my cloak on the floor as if it was something that was completely disallowed.

I listened closely and realised that Myrnin was recognising the fact that his master, Mr Fenwick, had arrived home. I waited for him to push open the dirty door and emerged in the laboratory, a nasty expression on his face. He didn't see me immediately, until I stepped into the glowing light of one of the candles which illuminated my face.

"Who are you?" he barked at me, angering me. I controlled my temper well, not killing him as I usually did when I was riled, and simply stepped up to him with as much confidence as I could emulate. I realised that I hadn't named myself to Myrnin, and he listened on in interest.

"My name is Amelie," I said simply. "I am here to make you treat your apprentice more adequately," I continued and turned the switch in my eyes to on. I sent the full power of compulsion into him and smiled as he jolted backwards slightly… perhaps I slightly overdid it. "You are no longer going to beat or malnourish this child. You shall treat him with the respect that he deserves, feed him in proportion to his age, and never lay a finger on him again. You shall be courteous and teach him all that you know in the realms of alchemy and science. You shall forget this conversation and my existence but do as I have instructed, forevermore. Do you understand?" I pressed, outlining my demands and confirming at the end, as usual. Myrnin's mouth hang wide open as his master nodded and then turned to face Myrnin with a smile on his face – something which I doubted ever had occurred before.

"Myrnin, would you like some supper?" Mr Fenwick asked Myrnin with a smile, a piece of bread and cheese in his outstretched hand. I nodded in encouragement, whilst refastening my cloak, and he gingerly accepted before taking a small bite, then a larger one. Soon, he had devoured the entire piece and I smiled before heading to the door.

I walked through it, and heard the pattering of tiny feet behind me. Myrnin reached out and gave me a hug around my waist, an action that I never could have anticipated.

"Thank you," he murmured into the thick lining of the black woollen cloak. "I will never forget you. Don't forget to come back in the future!" he said with an expectant grin. He peeled himself away and returned to his master, a cheeky stride in his step.

I shook my head at myself as I continued on my way, now complete with this detour. I had probably created a spoilt monster, I later reflected, one that felt he knew everything and was not shy in voicing this.

Still, I did my good deed. Perhaps there was a chance that I could return in the future, perhaps not. I did learn one thing from my time with Myrnin: I needed friends. I learnt there that Myrnin could be that good friend that I needed.

Perhaps…

So what did you think?

Isn't child Myrnin so cute?

Please review!

Vicky xx